Museums as Restorative Environments

Abstract Restorative environments possess a combination of attributes that facilitate recovery from mental fatigue. Most previous research in this regard has focused on natural environments, but this paper explores the extent to which museum environments also provide access to restorative experiences. Visitors (307 tourists and 274 local residents) to a history museum, an art museum, an aquarium, and a botanic garden completed a questionnaire regarding the restorative qualities and benefits of the environment they visited. The findings indicate that for some people, museums are at least as restorative as natural environments. The paper contributes to the development of a theoretical understanding of museums as restorative environments and provides insights into the factors that facilitate and enhance restorative experiences. Such experiences have the potential to contribute to visitors’ well‐being and satisfaction.     

Museums as Media in the Emergent Global Context

The papers, participants, presentations, and discussions that serve as the source of this special issue of Curator: The Museum Journal bear witness to the fact that museums are not only places to which something radical, even traumatic is currently happening. They are participants, and essentially agents of change, in the stressful, shifting ecology of globalization that has unmoored whole economies, regions and populations. Fundamentally, they are a form of media, in the sense defined by the Oxford English Dictionary. This article summarizes the challenges museums face in pursuing their mission as media, and ends with a few remarks about the need to turn some attention in the future to the topic of research.     

Children's Museums as Citizens: Four Inspiring Examples

Abstract The audience‐centered mission of childrens' museums has caused these institutions to look at their role in their respective communities and to take bold steps in envisioning new ways of relating to their constituents. Here is a selection of four childrens' museums which have founded inspiring and imaginative programs centered on children's welfare.     

博物馆:我们共有文化精神的前沿实验室

当代公共博物馆在经历了250余年的发展演变之后,其发展的社会、文化、专业甚至经济环境,都在发生着重要变化。新的趋势无疑为博物馆带来新机遇、新可能,同时也伴随新挑战。在今天博物馆需要回答的诸多问题中,有一个始终处于核心位置:我们的博物馆机构是否对社会很重要？无论是眼下还是长远的未来。围绕于此的相关讨论,让当代博物馆新的文化观逐渐清晰起来,让博物馆为适应新形势而进行的战略选择有了新的坐标,并最终引导出关于博物馆价值体系可能的重构以及新的运行规则。     

网上博物馆与传统博物馆

一、网络和博物馆一些媒体开始了新世纪倒计时,21世纪离我们越来越近,“网络”成为报纸、杂志和电视台使用频率最高的词汇之一。据说在中国,“上网”一词在近年所有流行词汇中名列前茅。今年1月ＣＮＮＩＣ(中国互联网络信息中心)公布的统计数,中国互联网用户截止到1999年底有890万,4月5日中央电视台晚间新闻播报的数字已经超过900万。根据ＩＤＣ预测,到2004年,中国互联网用户将发展到3989万。另外,2000年3月30日,我国第一个互联网交换中心———北京中国互联网交换中心正式开通,中国主要互联网间互联带宽由原来不足10兆比特每秒提高到100兆…     

博物馆与标准化

标准化是经济、技术、科学及管理等社会实践中，对重复性事物和概念，通过制定、发布和实施标准达到统一，以获取最佳秩序与效益的重要管理方法，是科学化、现代化管理的重要组成部分。标准化是一门古老而且实用性很强的学科，它的足迹与人类社会的发展历史紧密地同步前进。     

Museums and Impact

Since the 1980s, governments throughout the western industrialized world have required greater emphasis on fiscal and public accountability within the public sector. As a result, museum value has been constructed in response to economic rationalism and government policies without sufficient input from the museum sector itself. This paper asserts that any discussion of the role of museums, the contribution they make to societies and appropriate ways of evaluating their impact requires the perspectives and contributions of all stakeholders. It examines preliminary findings from a study that asked about the impact of museums from the perspective of museum professionals and end‐users. It reports significant areas of agreement between public and professional cohorts regarding the role museums play and the contribution they make both to individuals and to the social and economic development.     

Museums and Civility

We can offer unique value to humanity by building on the importance of animals in our cultural history, the primordial affection people have for landscapes, and the imminence of the biodiversity crisis. Our mission requires that we find a concept of nature in which the sharp divisions between humans and nature are removed.—Steven E. Sanderson, president and CEO, Wildlife Conservation Society.     

博物馆与媒体

随着社会的发展和科技的进步，媒体在各个层面，各个领域内的作用正在不断加强。而博物馆在发挥固有的陈列、研究、保藏的职能外，也越来越重视与媒体的交流与合作。在互动式的发展中，二已建立了某些不容忽视的联系。     

Museums and Virtuality

Abstract This paper investigates issues of museums and virtuality. In considering the diverse ways that museums are approaching virtuality, the focus here is on the common ground and shared objectives, rather than the differences between museums and their virtual re‐creations. Put simply, on‐site museums and their online counterparts are merely two ways of exhibiting cultures. In this sense, “virtuality” is a fundamental exhibition practice. The World Wide Web has become increasingly relevant to such core museum tasks as collecting, preserving, and exhibiting. Digitization of objects in digital heritage programs has led to new forms of collection management and unparalleled access to virtual replicas of museum artifacts. This transformation is inspiring new forms of preserving and displaying cultures both on‐ and off‐line. A successful digital expansion will largely influence whether museums can sustain their cultural authority and position in the 21st century.     

高校博物馆藏品征集策略完善路径研究——以陕西省高校博物馆为例

近代博物馆源起于高校,并逐渐形成了一套较为完备的藏品管理体系。我国高校博物馆是博物馆体系的重要组成部分,但在藏品征集方面的受关注度远低于社会公共博物馆,高校博物馆藏品征集工作出现了藏品来源渠道少、监管松、经费不足等问题。本文拟以陕西省高校博物馆为例,通过分析其藏品征集现状,针对藏品征集中存在的问题,尝试对高校博物馆的藏品征集策略进行完善,为新时期中国高校博物馆的藏品征集工作提供一些思考。